Elizabeth Banks’ Brownstone Prods Expands With Film & TV Hires

On the heels of Pitch Perfect 2‘s box office success, Elizabeth Banks and Max Handelman’s Brownstone Productions is expanding its film and TV divisions with two new hires. Alison Small and Renate Radford have been tapped as SVPs of Film and Television, respectively.

Small will oversee Brownstone’s film unit, which is based at Universal, where Brownstone has a first-look film production deal. Small previously was VP Production at Paramount Pictures and Paramount Insurge. At Paramount, Alison brought in and oversaw Project Almanac and also worked on World War Z, Anchorman: The Legend Continues, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Star Trek Into Darkness.

Radford will serve as SVP Television for the company which has a first look deal with WBTV. She comes to Brownstone from Jason Winer’s Small Dog Picture Company at Fox, where she served as Head of Development. Radford previously was with NBC, where her positions included SVP Comedy. She oversaw the development of the pilot and series for About A Boy, Undateable, Go On, BFF and Perfect Couples.

Brownstone is behind the hit Pitch Perfect franchise. Pitch Perfect 2, also directed by Banks, opened No. 1 at the domestic box office with more than $69 million, the biggest opening for a musical movie ever. It has grossed over $283 million worldwide to date on a $29 million budget. Universal recently announced Pitch Perfect 3, which will be released on July 21, 2017. Also at Universal, Banks is attached to direct Red Queen, based on the best-selling HarperCollins novel, which Brownstone would also produce with Benderspink.

The company also currently is working with Lionsgate on two feature projects. The first is based on the cult hit White Girl Problems about a socialite determined to show that even rich girls deserve sympathy. The other, also an adaptation, is Heist Society, based on Ally Carter’s novel about a woman who is from a family of thieves. In development at TriStar is Dirty Rush, based on the comic novel about sorority life. Brownstone also is in development with HBO on a biopic about tennis icon Billie Jean King, which will star Banks and Paul Giamatti.

This summer, Brownstone’s first digital comedy series premiered on Hulu; Resident Advisers was produced in collaboration with Paramount Digital. The company also produced the 2009 Disney sci-fi feature Surrogates starring Bruce Willis and Rosamund Pike.

“Max and I are thrilled to be taking our film and television business to the next level, and Alison and Renate will be instrumental in achieving that goal,” said Banks.

Banks and Handelman are represented by Untitled Entertainment, UTA and Ziffren Brittenham.